Srecan Rodjendan!!!

Sunday morning.  So, normally, I would have woken up rather early and gone to church, either Westerly or Calvary Chapel.  Since Nikola and his family are Serbian Orthodox (and not practicing), Sunday was really no different from Saturday.  I woke up at 9:30 and read my Bible before getting up for breakfast.  Nikola got up around the same time although I later learned that he had not returned home until 5am... apparently this is normal for Serbian teens, but I rather think it is more true of teenagers in general in places where there is a vibrant nightlife (i.e. not Maine).  
Breakfast consisted of prženica (which is very similar to french toast although I'm not entirely sure it is made with eggs), mloko (milk, but much thicker than even whole milk - and Nikola told me this was the skimmer version; I now understand why he was partial to half-and-half while he was in America), and a thick, soft cheese very similar to cottage cheese, along with kaimak and xleb (bread) again.  Once again, I found that most of the food was quite good, although not exactly what I'm used to having for breakfast.
After breakfast, Aca and I went to the corner store down the street to buy a newspaper.  Aca, finding that I knew Serbian numbers, offered to let me buy the newspaper but I declined - I'm still skeptical of my communication skills in a real-life situation.  We also attempted to visit their grandmother, Divna (divna means "wonderful" as well as being their grandmother's name, an amusing coincidence).  However, though Aca insisted that she was home, we could not rouse her either by ringing the doorbell or calling her phone, which reminded me strongly of my own mostly-deaf grandmother, and so we returned home.  At this point Nikola informed me that, regrettably, he actually had to study for his final tomorrow, so I was left to fend for myself for a while.  After the flurry of activity the day before, this was a more than welcome respite.  I blogged for a while (the two posts previous to this one) and Aca, who asked me several times what I was doing, was impressed at the amount that I wrote.  So am I, now that I go back and look at them. :]  Mrs. Stojanovic very generously fixed me some ice cream with fresh strawberries, and I found the ice cream to be indistinguishable from that which we have in the States.
In many ways, Serbia is a test run for when I am in Russia; for instance, I am learning which footwear I can and cannot successfully walk around town in.  Unfortunately, a particularly poor choice of shoes on the day of my arrival has left me with a large and painful blister on one of my heels which now makes it a bit more difficult for me to walk a great distance.  However, I suppose that it is better for me to get these foolish mistakes out of the way now so that when I am in St. Petersburg in a potentially much less sympathetic environment and no choice as to how much walking I will be doing every day, I will avoid repeating them.
For dinner (around 4pm) we were given a treat as Divna came over and the Stojanovics ate as a family.  Divna speaks no English, so my part in the dinner conversation was extremely limited, but I didn't mind.  I figure that the more time I spend listening to and absorbing the rhythm of a Slavic language, even if it isn't Russian, will help me with my listening comprehension and cadence when speaking.  In fact, I sometimes surprise myself with how much I can understand; when Divna began inquiring about me, I could tell that they told her that on Friday, I was leaving for St. Petersburg, that I would be studying Russian there, and that I would be there for 8 weeks.  Admittedly, most of this is due to the similarities between Serbian and Russian, but every little bit of practice helps!!  Dinner itself consisted of a first course of čorba (vegetable soup, very plain), followed by a sort of cheese pie, cooked carrots, paprika (peppers), rice, and meat.  I had tried the peppers at the wedding and knew that I didn't like them, and I've never been particularly partial to cooked carrots, but I tried everything else and found it to be quite good.  After dinner, we had a treat - Divna had made a dessert similar to strawberry cobbler, topped with a sort of whipped cream, which was very delicious indeed. 
After dinner, Nikola had choir practice for a whopping four hours.  He sings in a choir that is affiliated with the (small) Jewish community in Belgrade, although (obviously) one does not have to be of Jewish lineage in order to join.  It is also open to singers of all ages, and the members range from students such as Nikola to older men and women, including one gentleman who, Nikola informed me, had been a part of the choir for forty years.  They have a concert coming up next Monday and so they have practice nearly every day next week, although this rehearsal was the longest.  I sat in a corner and read, but four hours really is quite a long time to be doing anything.  I was impressed by the span of the choir's repetoire - I heard them sing in Serbian, English, Hebrew, French, and Spanish, everything from ballads to scat.  They are fairly impressive, though not the best singing group I have ever heard, and evidently their director thinks they could stand a great deal of improvement, for he often raises his voice when correcting them (he reminded me much of Mr. Kimball, my theatre director in high school).  Nikola had two friends in the choir who spoke fairly good English - Danilo, who was an exchange student in America at the same time as Nikola (he went to South Dakota, to a rural community, and I felt bad for him, knowing how difficult the transition was for Nikola, coming from a large city to a small town), and Yelena, who lives in the building just across the courtyard from Nikola.  Danilo walked back to Nikola's apartment with us and told me a little about his experience in America; unfortunately, it wasn't as positive as Nikola's, since he was originally placed with a rotten host family.  Hopefully, I will like my family in St. Petersburg, as I can see how much of an effect it has on one's experience.  Fortunately, the Stojanovics (and especially Nikola) have been absolutely wonderful hosts and I am thoroughly enjoying myself in this new culture.
I was particularly eager to rush back to Nikola's apartment because Sunday was my sister Emily's sixteenth birthday, which I was very grieved to be missing.  I have quite possibly missed my sister more than any other member of my family during my freshman year of college, since it was only two or three years ago that we really began to get along well, and I felt that I owed it to her to be there on what was a very special day for her.  Knowing that I would be here on her day, I took her shopping before I left and told her that she had $50 to spend, but I still was very anxious to talk to her on her birthday.  Fortunately, we got back to Nikola's apartment at 10:40pm, which is 4:40 in Brewer, and caught Emily on Skype.  It was great to see her and the rest of my family again, and to prove to them that I had, indeed, arrived safely halfway to the other side of the world.  Nikola also enjoyed seeing my family, and, like last year, he sang the birthday song to her in Serbian, to her great delight.  I hope that she enjoyed a truly wonderful birthday.
After that, I reminded Nikola that I was still trying to recover from the jet lag, so he allowed that I should go to bed, it being already 11:30.  I believe it is worth noting that this is the earliest I have gone to bed since arriving in Belgrade, and sincerely hope that this will not become a pattern for the remainder of the summer, but fear otherwise.  For all of my world travels, I still remain me, and I am a firm believer in that old saying of Benjamin Franklin's: "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."